A Tennessee man has been charged after allegedly claiming that he had former GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s income tax returns during the 2012 presidential campaign, according to court documents.
Michael Mancil Brown, 34, was charged with six counts of wire fraud and six counts of extortion, according to a federal grand jury indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Nashville on Wednesday.
Brown allegedly sent an anonymous letter to the offices of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Franklin, Tenn., at the height of last year’s presidential race, according to the indictment. The letter demanded $1 million in the form of the digital currency Bitcoin in exchange for the supposed tax returns.
The letter, which was delivered at about the same time as the Republican and Democratic national conventions were held, also said that parties could get the alleged tax forms released in exchange for $1 million in Bitcoins.
Brown claimed he got a copy of the tax documents after accessing PwC’s internal systems. Those claims were false, the indictment found.
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